Tag: The Soft Moon Criminal

Over the past few years, I’ve written quite a bit about the Oakland, CA-based singer/songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist Luis Vasquez and his solo industrial/darkwave/post-punk recording project The Soft Moon, and as you may recall Vasquez’s latest Soft Moon album, Criminal is arguably one of the most confessional and deeply personal albums he has written and released to date, as the album’s material thematically focuses on a man at war with himself, battling with self-hatred, insecurity and self-entitlement — with an underlying fear that he’s quickly transforming into the type of person he despises. Now, back in March, I wrote about the brooding and starkly atmospheric “Give Something,” a track that Vasquez explained in press note sis about his inability to reciprocate love and tenderness to another person. “Having no control over the constant urge to sabotage all things that are good for me, there is irony and frustration in knowing that in the end, the impossibility of love is what ultimately will save me from myself,” the Oakland-based singer/songwriter, electronic music producer and multi-instrumentalist says in press notes.

Criminal’s latest single “Like A Father” is centered around an abrasive and murky industrial production that brings Pretty Hate Machine and Downward Spiral-era Nine Inch Nails and Ministry to mind, as it features thumping, tweeter and woofer rattling beats, industrial clang and clatter, thick and arpeggiated synths and strummed guitar chords played through distortion and other effects pedals, and while the song is dance floor friendly, it churns with the inner turmoil of man figuratively — and perhaps at points, even literally — wrestling with himself and his own demons, and losing quite badly.

Directed by Kelsey Henderson, the recently released video for “Like A Father” is comprised of a series of rapid-fire edits that shift from a brooding and angry man looking at himself in a carnival mirror before switching to the same man in a garage bag struggling to break free from his physical (and emotional) confines. Much like the accompanying song, the video is unsettling and leaves a lingering presence.

Like this:

Luis Vasquez is an Oakland, CA-based singer/songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind behind the critically applauded industrial/dark wave/post-punk recording project The Soft Moon. Vasquez’s latest Soft Moon album, the recently released Criminal is reportedly one of his most confessional albums he has released to date, as the material is written through a stark lens of shame and guilt, in which the material thematically focuses on a man at war with himself, battling with self-hatred, insecurity, self-entitlement paired with the fear of those things transforming him into the type of person he normally despises.

Criminal’s latest single is the broodingly stark and atmospheric “Give Something,” a track that pairs his falsetto with thumping beats, razor sharp synths and industrial clang and clatter. Interestingly, as Vasquez explains in press notes, the track focuses on his inability to reciprocate love and tenderness to another person. “Having no control over the constant urge to sabotage all things that are good for me, there is irony and frustration in knowing that in the end, the impossibility of love is what ultimately will save me from my myself.” It’s a plaintive and gut wrenchingly urgent call for help from a deeply troubled, emotionally damaged yet incredibly self-aware person.

Directed by Kelsey Henderson and featuring video effects and color by Victoria Keddie, the recently released video for “Give Something” focuses on a split screen throughout — one the left, a topless woman with her back to the screen and a couple seemingly in the middle of intense coitus, with the same woman from the left hand side grabbing and scratching the back of her lover with a desperate, painful grip that leaves marks. At points the visuals go through stuttering visual effects that on one level makes it look as though the woman may be abusing herself — or her lover — out of selfish motivations.